The toy is broken

591 has definitely quit (fermeé). The fire's off but the embers are still burning below. The phoenix has come back to life again from her ashes. I'll come back on this topic in the following days.

End of transmissions?

591 is going to take its place in the Hall of Fame of photography blog. We'll find out the best way to celebrate this unbelievable experience. But it's not all finished, nothing lost. The 591 star ship crew is bent on the maps again, looking for a new destination and getting ready for a new experience, a new journey. I shall contribute to the new enterprise as well.

Five Years Gone

It's been a long ride. A journey that started in a cold and rainy November evening in Stockholm, five years ago. It was one of those nights that you even strive to find the will to step out of your hotel room for dinner. I still recall the icy droplets tipping on the panes of my windows and myself in a white shower coat, sitting at the desk and waiting for the opening post of 591 to appear.

That's, photographically speaking, my greatest regret. I could have sat together with the founder of this enterprise while the its brainchild was gearing up and moving its first steps. I waited instead in a cozy and warm hotel room, few hundreds meters far from him, just because I was shy, lazy and felt inappropriate.

It's been a long ride and I nourished myself the conviction it would have lasted for much more. As life teaches every day, unfortunately, things are made to be born and die. Death, unlike birth, arrives inadvertently or after many unseen or misunderstood signs. And when it happens remorse takes possession of your mind. You look back at the time gone a regret for what you haven't been able to do, for what you've always postponed.

This evening was meant to be a moment of celebration. I prepared myself to that. Alas, as anticipated some weeks ago, Ulf decided it was time to roll the shutter down and close this experience. We were noticed about this just yesterday, soon after the last exhibition was out.

Needless to say I feel sad. 

591 - One World

"When 591 Photography started in November 2008, I was determined to make it an international site. The world is one and to view pictures from all over the world and get to know photographers from every corner of the planet will hopefully contribute to resist all kinds of xenophobia." (Ulf Fagelhammar)

The latest effort made by Ulf for 591 is concentrated in the 180 photographs selected for the exhibition "One World", on display from today at the following link: One World.

Let's stay united

A great team comes out in the toughest of its moments. Whatever the beliefs and the opinions, its member stay together and closer than before and openly talk, discuss, communicate and build the ground for a better future. The fringes blur, whereas the core looks sharp and solid.

Siblings Days on 591

A new call for submissions is open on 591. This time we're looking for siblings pictures. We're pretty sure everyone of us has some to share. Click on the picture below (Flavio and Gloria won't blame you for doing it) to get access to the details. There time: deadline  has been fixed to June 16.

591 Spring Exhibition 2013

This year's 591 Spring Exhibition will be about Time - namely about days passing by and it's split into four main sections:

Morning

Afternoon

Evening

Night

Nothing easier after all. We just need your little contribution to renew once again the magic of a world wide collective experience as the 591 Spring Exhibition.

We would like you to submit pictures capturing the essence, the shifting moods of the 24 hour cycle. You can submit max 3 pictures to each category. The pictures should be max 1000 pixels on longest side, 72 dpi. Important - please write in your email what category your pictures should belong to.

The address to submit to is: daysgoby591@gmail.com

Deadline for submissons is 3 March 2013

The Spring Exhibition will premiere on 1 April and it will be a permanent exhibition. We will select 30 pictures from each category - in total 120 images.

Shadow Days

One of the most exciting and interesting exhibitions ever organized by 591 Photography Blog is now on display. Treat yourself with a tour into the gallery, click on the exhibition poster.

Landmarks - III

Maybe it's better putting down two lines to explain these pictures. Ulf, AKA Mr Urbano, 591 founder, asked us to start a new advertising campaign by printing 591 logo and sticking it  wherever possible (and allowed, of course ...). So I made my print and gave two samples to my kids. They inevitably found the best use of these stripes of paper: something that I could only barely imagine. I'm wondering who's the real creative ...

Landmarks - II

Landmarks

Ruhollah Mahmoudi

I just posted on 591 a stunning series from a young talented Iranian photographer: Ruhollah Mahmoudi. I believe it's worth a careful look, as well as a walk through his professional and generous website. I'm very happy to have contributed this series (and a new one about to be published) to be shown to a wider audience. In these vivid and living images I find the same appeal and sense of presence I use to find on those series published by world famous reportage magazines.


Click on the picture below to get access to the series.

Photograph, (C) Ruhollah Mahmoudi

Flower Power

Time to blow the dust off.

591 Photography has just waged a new campaign called "Flower Power", collecting any kind of picture about flowers.The contribution we are receiving are worth of an exhibition that I hope we'll be able to set up and put on display. Anyone can give his/her contribution. Submissions will be accepted all along the incoming Summer. You can dive through the currently received picture by clicking exactly HERE!

This happening gave me the chance to remove the dust off some good pictures I took years ago in the meadow standing in front of my office building.

Kymlinge

I'll be back in Kista next week, after a couple of years since I last visited Stockholm. I had already been there several times, in the years before but recently my job has led me somewhere else. I still remember as it was yesterday a rainy end of October in year 2008. In a couple of weeks 591 blog was planned to be opened and I had committed with Ulf to take some pictures about the ghost station of Kymlinge, few steps away from Kista. So I got out quickly during a lunch break and made my rush into the wood.

The result of my long walk was put down under form of a report and published on the very first day of 591 life. Later, I turned it into a PDF photobook, which has been reachable so far through one my website pages.

Now, as I've recently discovered that is possible to turn PDF into flippable on-line document, I've made a trial. How ... easy it is! Part of the result is given below: unfortunately only the first pages can be leafed from here. The whole book can be seen entering its Flipsnack page.

591 Spring Exhibition 2012: The Four Elements

The long wait has eventually finished.

It's been a tough task. I've never been so active on 591 blog as recently. I committed to take care of the "Earth" section, sending out invitations to all the photographers I know and getting in few weeks more than 100 answers from more than 50 people. This is not bad, provided I had to select 30 photographs from preferably thirty different people.

Now the selection task has finished. We have gathered our selections together and prepared the slideshow. Find a comfortable seat, on a sofa, on a long chair and click on the picture below: there are 120 pictures waiting to be seen. It will be a 10 minutes long break. A cup of tea could help to let you float through the large variety of interpretations that were given to each of the four topics.

I'm very happy to have contributed to this project. Next step should be a free downloadable PDF file collecting all the selected images.

Few more days to go

  Next Sunday 4 will be the last day valid for submitting picture for the 591 Spring Exhibition 2012. I've been collecting images relative to the element "Earth". Pictures are still coming into my mailbox (591eart@gmail.com). I see several different opinions about this topic and interpretations. Not bad, the world is fun for this.

  In the coming weeks there will be the selection process and all the things about the organization of the exhibition. This experience has given me the chance to know many other photographers and go through their portfolios. Some of them are really impressive. In a couple of cases I have even met professional photographers which I never had heard of, before and still are prominent names in our world.

  I'm eager to see who else will submit in the next two days. In the meantime, before rolling up my sleeves, I can comfortably sit on a couch and see.

Apparently still

I wrote somewhere else (PhotoPoints), today, that the one below is a lucky shot.

The ancient landscape of northern Milan district is rapidly disappearing under a cover of factories hangars, ugly flat and wide concrete buildings for commercial hubs, parking lots, goods deposits, new and basically unnecessary highways that are swallowing the latest spots of woods and untouched lands.

Most of the woods and fields we can see from satellite-scanned images are already gone. It's the destiny of the flatland and hillsides of a country that's been managed by ignorance, power anger and selfishness.

Next step will be the mountains. When I take off from my closest airport, in Malpensa I see the wide stretch of charcoal and concrete growing larger and larger. Wider areas of mountains are getting spotted by what we call "villette", the typical Mediterranean seaside cottage. At 2000mt height!

It's better myself to stop here.

Exhibition Poster

I have made this kind of artwork poster to let anyone interested in the initiative to print his/her own copy and stick it anywhere. Click over the picture to download the PDF file.

 

Tiberio Fanti, (C) 2012

591 Photography Blog - Spring Exhibition 2012

The announcement has finally arrived. The call for the new 591 Spring Exhibition went out today. Everyone is invited and free to participate to the 4th edition of our main online event. The first edition "Portraits" was held in Summer 2009, followed by "The 80s" in 2010 and "Images of Men and Women" last year. We're looking forward to get in contact with as many applicants as never before.


I'm not fearing to be overwhelmed by the amount of work to be done. Feel free to send your best pictures about Fire, Air, Water and ... Earth. Click on the poster picture below to get to the official 591 page.

591 Spring Exhibition

The Earth days are getting close.